Mitsubishi Badge Restored!

Before I could "unveil" my rejuvenated lancer - there's one last thing I need to work on - the Mitsubishi badge in the trunk. ( the one that proudly shouts out her lineage and heritage :-D )

I bought a cheap replacement in Blade (around 120 pesos) around two years ago and it looked good while it lasted. As expected, the chrome faded to the point of no return and the "little red diamonds" went AWOL. I had to dig through my stuff to find this old OEM badge. Although it looks dull and is also missing a couple a diamonds, I figured I could still breathe back some life to it.

The same plastic I used in fixing my A/C vents (read about it here) is perfect for the job.

 

With some scissors, cutters and a whole lot of patience...

 

... I was able to come up with new diamonds for this tired old badge.

A bit of red paint to finish it off..

.. And they're ready to be glued on.

Nice! Wohoo..

Now that the Mitsubishi logo is back to life, I turn my attention to that dull chrome - I've thought about using some metal polish or rubbing compound to bring back some of its bling but I feared I might just buff away all that chrome -  so I've decided to give it a layer of clearcoat (and buff it to a shine after) - and that's when disaster happened!!!

See how important it is to make sure you're using "compatible" paint types - I've already discussed this in my earlier blog post (post located here) so I'm fully aware that you can't spray acrylic on top of urethane since it result to paint bubbles.  Well, I assure you I did not use red urethane paint here.

I used acrylic paint for both the red base and clearcoat but it still bubbled up. Why? Well, I now know (and I'm sharing it with you) that red rattle can paint (Bosny) and nippon acrylic top coat (the one you spray using a compressor/gun setup) are not compatible! :(  I figured since they are both acrylic paints (as stated in the back of the bosny can - "100% automotive acrylic") - I should be fine. But I guess the rattle can paint is "weaker" than the top coat I used and that's why it bubbled up :(

I had no choice but to remove and repaint those diamonds again :( TIP: Just to reiterate - Never use acrylic clear coat to top off those rattle can paints - it might cause problems like the one I had. If you're going to use rattle can paints for your base coat and would still want to lay on some clear on top of it - either use the same rattle can clear coat  or go with urethane paint - I've tried both and they end up looking good :)

 After buffing the clearcoat - the chrome looks shiny! Placed it back in the trunk with some clear epoxy. TIP: I've used Mighty bond in the past and I feel its not the right glue for the job - it gets brittle and cracks up after some time and the badge has a tendency of falling off.

As they say - the devil's in the details - I bought a pair of ralliart badges a while back and and it gave my cheap generic plate holder 1000+ pogi points :)

I guess that's it for my lancer project for now - watch out for the finished product (and her new name) on my next post! :)

Thanks!